justice – Carrie's Bench

Simply Lent 31…

Justice and Peace meet at the café,
sit together,
hands folded around steaming cups,
heads bent over the paper.

They are not taking in
the news of the world
with sorrowing eyes
and the clucking of tongues.

They are instead planning their itinerary,
plotting their map,
looking for the places where
they might slip in.

Their fingers touch, release,
touch again as they read,
moving with the half-aware habits
that come only with long living alongside.

They have met, parted,
met again on countless mornings
like this one, torn and taken
by turns.

They put the paper aside.
They brush away the crumbs.
They talk quietly.
They know there is work to do.

But they order one more cup:
there is savoring they must do before
the saving begins.
They lean in,

barely touching
across the table for
a kiss that makes a way,
a world.

—Jan Richardson

Image: “Meeting” © janrichardsonimages.com

(Blessing inspired by Psalm 85, NRSV—“Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.”)

Jonathan Daniels – Still with us this day-

Today in the Episcopal Church commemorates martyr, Jonathan Daniels. Bright with the light of faith and social conscience he joined a growing voice for civil rights in the 1960’s. After hearing Martin Luther King speak, he left seminary to share in the work of social justice in Selma, Alabama. He was arrested in Ft. Deposit, Alabama, in 1965, and was shot dead six days later in Hayneville, jumping in front of Ruby Sales, a young black activist who a deputy sheriff had intended to kill.

From his writings we learn of his deep faith and commitment to equality. Listen closely – he was witness and leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the ’60s. He is present everywhere we cry out ‘black lives matter’ today.

He writes, “I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had been truly baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection… with them, the black and white men, with all life, in him whose Name is above all the names that the races and nations. We are indelibly and unspeakably one.”

O God of justice and compassion, you put down the proud and mighty from their place, and lift up the poor and the afflicted: We give you thanks for your faithful witness Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who, in the midst of injustice and violence, risked and gave his life for another; and we pray that we, following his example, may make no peace with oppression; through Jesus Christ the just one, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (from Lesser Feasts and Fasts – Episcopal Church)

Prayers for Ferguson and America

In times of conflict-

Oh God, you’re bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another, without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.